Method and system for calculating blood vessel pressure difference and fractional flow reserve

Abstract

A method for computing fractional flow reserve (FFR), including receiving geometrical parameters of a blood vessel segment including a proximal end and a distal end, the geometrical parameters including a first geometrical parameter, a second geometrical parameter and a third geometrical parameter; and with the proximal end as a reference point, deriving a reference lumen diameter function and a geometrical parameter difference function based on the geometrical parameters and the distance from the position along the segment of blood vessel to the reference point. Derivatives of the geometrical parameter difference function are calculated in multiple scales. FFR is computed as a ratio of a second blood flow pressure at the first location of the blood vessel to a first blood flow pressure at the proximal end of the segment based on the multiple scales of derivative difference functions and the maximum mean blood flow velocity.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of detecting pressure deviation in a blood vessel segment, comprising:
 receiving geometrical parameters of a blood vessel segment comprising a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the geometrical parameters comprises a first geometrical parameter representing a cross-sectional area or diameter of the proximal end of the segment, a second geometrical parameter representing a cross-sectional area or diameter of the distal end of the segment, and a third geometrical parameter representing a cross-sectional area or diameter of the blood vessel segment at a first location between the proximal end and the distal end; wherein the geometrical parameters are obtained by two-dimensional or three-dimensional coronary angiography, coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA), intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) or optical coherence tomography (OCT); 
 receiving a mean blood flow velocity of the blood vessel segment; 
 with the proximal end point as a reference point, deriving a reference lumen diameter function based on the first geometrical parameter, the second geometrical parameter and a distance x from a certain position along the blood vessel segment to the reference point; 
 wherein the reference lumen diameter function is used to represent reference lumen diameter at different positions along the blood vessel as a function of the distance x from the position to the reference point, and 
 wherein the derivation of the reference lumen diameter function Preferably comprises a linear normalization as a function of location from the proximal end to the distal end of the segment; 
 with the proximal end point as a reference point, deriving a geometrical parameter difference function based on the third geometrical parameter and the reference lumen diameter function; 
 wherein the geometrical parameter difference function indicates a relationship of differences between the reference lumen diameter function and the received geometrical parameters with respect to the distances x from the reference point; 
 calculating derivatives of the geometrical parameter difference function in multiple scales, wherein the scales are resolutions indicative of distances between two adjacent points when calculating derivative numerically, wherein the multiple scales comprise a first greater scale and a second smaller scale, wherein the multiple scales of derivative difference functions comprise a derivative difference function f 1 (x) in the first scale and a derivative difference function f 2 (x) in the second scale, wherein use of the multiple scales enables manifestation of impacts of different severity of stenosis (focal and diffuse) on the pressure deviation; 
 wherein the derivative difference function f 1 (x) in the first scale is adapted to detect a geometrical parameter difference between an actual lumen diameter and a reference lumen diameter caused by stenosis affecting a wide range, with geometrical parameter differences caused by focal stenosis being ignored, 
 wherein the derivative difference function f 2 (x) in the second scale is adapted to detect a geometrical parameter difference between an actual lumen diameter and a reference lumen diameter caused by a focal lesion; and 
 obtaining a pressure deviation ΔP between a first blood flow pressure at the proximal end and a second blood flow pressure at the first location based on the derivatives of the geometrical parameter difference in multiple scales at the first location, the mean blood flow velocity V and a square of the mean blood flow velocity V 2 . 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: computing the pressure deviation ΔP between the first blood flow pressure and the second blood flow pressure by weighting integrals of the first scale of derivative difference function f 1 (x) and the second scale of derivative difference function f 2 (x) as well as the mean blood flow velocity V and its square V 2 . 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , further comprising: computing the pressure deviation ΔP between the first blood flow pressure and the second blood flow pressure according to
   Δ P =α[ C   1   V+C   2   V   2 ]*∫ f   1 ( x ) dx +β[ C   1   V+C   2   V   2 ]*∫ f   2 ( x ) dx  
 
 where C 1  and C 2  represent coefficients of the mean blood flow velocity V and its square V 2 , respectively, and α and β denote weighting coefficients of the derivative difference functions in the first and second scales respectively. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 computing derivatives of the geometrical parameter difference function in n scales, wherein the pressure deviation ΔP between the first blood flow pressure and the second blood flow pressure is computed based on the n scales of derivative difference functions, 
 wherein the scales are resolutions indicative of distances between two adjacent points when calculating derivative numerically, wherein the n scales consist of a first scale, a second scale, . . . and an n-th scale, 
 wherein the derivative difference function f 1 (x) in the first scale is adapted to detect a geometrical parameter difference between an actual lumen diameter and a reference lumen diameter caused by a first lesion characteristic, with geometrical parameter differences caused by other lesions being ignored, 
 wherein the derivative difference function f 2 (x) in the second scale is adapted to detect a geometrical parameter difference between an actual lumen diameter and a reference lumen diameter caused by a second lesion characteristic, 
 wherein the derivative difference function f n (x) in the n-th scale is adapted to detect a geometrical parameter difference between an actual lumen diameter and a reference lumen diameter caused by an n-th lesion characteristic, and wherein n is a natural number greater than 1. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 computing the pressure deviation ΔP between the first blood flow pressure and the second blood flow pressure by weighting integrals of the n scales of derivative difference functions f 1 (x), . . . , f n (x) and the mean blood flow velocity V and the square of the mean blood flow velocity V 2 . 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , further comprising: computing the pressure deviation ΔP between the first blood flow pressure and the second blood flow pressure according to
   Δ P=α   1 [ C   1   V+C   2   V   2 ]*∫ f   1 ( x ) dx+α   2 [ C   1   V+C   2   V   2 ]∫ f   2 ( x ) dx+ . . . +α   n [ C   1   V+C   2   V   2 ]*∫ f   n ( x ) dx  
 
 where, C 1  and C 2  represent coefficients of the mean blood flow velocity V and its square V 2 , respectively, and α 1 , α 2 , . . . , and α n  denote weighting coefficients for the derivative difference functions f 1 (x), f 2 (x), . . . , f n (x) in the n scales, respectively. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the location data related to the first location is a distance from the first location to the proximal end of the segment, and wherein the mean blood flow velocity is a mean velocity from the proximal end to the distal end. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: receiving two-dimensional coronary angiography images under a certain angle; and registering region of interest of the images for different frames, wherein the region of interest of the coronary angiography is from the proximal end point of the segment to the distal end. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , further comprising: plotting a gray-level histogram from the registered region of interest and fitting the gray-level as a function of time within a cardiac cycle. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , further comprising: obtaining a mean flow velocity of contrast medium within the segment from the gray-level fitting function. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , wherein the mean blood flow velocity V of the blood vessel segment is approximately equal to the mean flow velocity of the contrast medium obtained from the gray-level fitting function.